January 18, 2009
I got home Saturday evening to find that we had a good size snowstorm coming in overnight. My plan was to hike solo on Sunday, but with the incoming storm I decided not to. I decided to send Cath Goodwin an email just in case she was still planning on hiking the Twins and Galehead."
My email to Cath: "With the incoming storm, I imagine you are postponing/cancelling your hike of the Twins and Galehead."
Her response: "Heck no!"
I didn't need the Twins or Galehead for my January grid but I didn't want to hike solo (or break trail solo), so I joined her for the hike. After spotting vehicles on Trudeau Road, we drove up to the Seven Dwarfs Motel to begin our hike. There were 7 of us: Bashful, Doc, Dopey, Grumpy, Happy, Sleepy, and Sneezy. Oh wait, wrong story. It was Drew, Larisa, Steve, Bill, Diane, Cath, and myself.
On this very snowy day, moisture got inside my camera. The few pictures I took today were foggy and worthless. Fortunately Larisa and Bill shared their photos with me. To see more of Larisa's photos from the day click here. To see more of Bill's photos
click here.
Getting Ready
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It was a road walk for the first 1.5 miles. When we reached the summer trailhead, Larisa let out one of her woo-hoos.
"I never saw anyone get so excited just reaching the trailhead," I said.
"This means it's just 4.3 miles to our first summit," she replied.
Our group on the North Twin Trail
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Cath led us up the trail. We did a couple short bushwhacks staying on the left side of the river to avoid multiple river crossings. Once we finally did cross the river, Drew broke trail for a while followed by Larisa, the trail breaking machine, who led us all the way up to the 4761' summit of North Twin.
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This was #16 for my 48 in 1 winter season.
Our group on the summit of North Twin
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We took turns breaking trail to South Twin which had drifts several feet deep.
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As we neared the summit Larisa got caught in a spruce trap. Once she was free, she looked up to the summit and gave another woo-hoo.
"The girl has summit fever," said Cath.
We reached the 4902' summit of South Twin. This was #17 for my all in 1 winter season. This was #47 for Diane's winter 4's. Congratulations Diane!!! Just Washington to go.
I climbed the rock on top of South Twin where Larisa took my picture.
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We had fun breaking trail down from South Twin. As we neared Galehead Hut, we met Caveman and company coming from the other direction. They had been breaking trail all day as well as they came across the Garfield Ridge Trail. We were very happy to see each other. They had broken out Galehead for us and we had broken out North and South Twin for them. Great timing. We dropped our packs at the hut and took a break.
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We then headed up to 4024' summit of Galehead. This was #18 for my all in 1 winter season.
Just before the summit there is a lookout where you look down to Galehead Hut.
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Drew later joked, "I don't need these peaks for January, I'm counting them for February."
I have to admit, the thought also had occurred to me, but no, we can't do that.
We headed back to the hut where Bill and Diane were waiting for us. They didn't 'need' Galehead so they had stayed at the hut. We followed Caveman's broken trail down to the Gale River Trail. Now it was time to break trail again, but at least we were going down.
"I just had a revolting thought," I said. "After this long hike and then the long drive home, I still have to shovel all this snow. Uggh!"
The last couple miles of the trail Steve must have gotten his 2nd wind, because he hauled it out of there.
We reached the Gale River summer trailhead. There was a bench there. I'm not one to pass by a bench on a long hike.
I sat down as we waited for the rest of the group to catch up.
"If I sat down, I wouldn't get up again," said Steve.
"Are you waiting for the hikers' shuttle," joked Larisa.
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We then had a 1.9 mile road walk to get out. Great hike everyone!!! Drive safe on the way home.
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